Ignoring the Obvious?

Time for some politics again, sometimes I feel like giving up on writing about global politics because some things never change... although, if we remain silent things will be even worse. Warning, this post might make you think. Right now Iranians are voting for their representatives in the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) and for some time I was preparing to point out the obvious, Iran is the only democracy in the Middle East, well... maybe with the exception of Turkey. What, you thought I forgot about Israel or that I'm "antisemitic"? Haha, Israel is a fascist-like ethnic totalitarianism (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and apparently Jews survived the Holocaust to inflict it on others. I'm just pointing out the obvious, replace Israel with an individual and you will surely see that individual as totally fucked-up.

On the other hand Iran is the black sheep of the neighborhood, ever asked why? You may say nukes, I will ask you, what nukes? Did Iran start any wars? When was the last time when you heard about Iranian soldiers killing women and children from helicopters and being proud of it, or is Iran the one who gives weapons to drug trafficking cartels in exchange for drugs? Any ethnic cleansing in Iran that I didn't know about? I am tired with all the lies and all the mindless people who bow down to retarded propaganda. Iran should be a regional power because it proved that it is capable of sustaining industrial, scientific and economic developments even with sanctions. Why, in the name of God, people aren't taking to the streets in protest against the relationship between the west and Saudi Arabia, is it more "democratic" to have splendid ties with an absolute monarchy? They don't even have a constitution in the modern sense of the word!

Libya... give some Hustlers, beer and drugs to the predominantly young population of Libya and you have the heroic rebels. Those people lived very well, free housing, health-care, education, jobs... now what? Now they don't even have enough money to pay the wages and has any human rights moron seen how the heroic rebels treat the "opposition"? Or they are not allowed to have an opposition? Gaddafi wasn't a saint but at least he had a vision for a powerful Africa. Is Obama a saint... or any other Bilderberg dumbfuck? Or any simple individual even.

Syria, another playground for American arrogance. Who the hell can think that arming the opposition is a good idea? Oh, McCain and Hilary can, and if they can, than that makes it law for the rest of the mindless sheep that vote for them. Those who give death as a solution should be the first to get a dose of their own medicine. This cycle must stop, someone must somehow put an end to this dark age, if Jews will put aside their stupid religious nationalism, if Americans will put an end to their imperialism, if North Korea will renounce it's psychopathic society and so on, then maybe we will deserve to eat the food this Earth gives us and drink the water the rivers and lakes give us. All 6 billion+ of us must change, we should love work, love beauty and knowledge, strive for justice, peace...

Why do you ignore the obvious?

A separation / Losers' Club

Image from the movie Losers' Club

Recently i had the possibility to see two great movies: "A Separation", Iran, 2011, directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami ; and "Losers' Club", Turkey, 2011, directed by Tolga Ornek and starring Nejat Isler, Yigit Ozsener and Ahu Turkpence. The two movies are quite different from one another, although there are some important elements that unite them, the ideas of loneliness, separation and their opposites. Even thou both countries are mostly Islamic the fact that Turkey is secular can easily be seen. Losers' Club nonetheless puts into discussion culture and censorship. In "A Separation" we are immersed into a truly theocratic society with a strict (although incomparably softer than in many Middle Eastern countries) sharia law.

What stuck with me after seeing the Iranian film was that family is important, very important... when you add children into the equation things take a drastic turn... into the better in my opinion. The starting point with the two wanting to get a divorce, in fact she wanting to get divorced slowly makes room for other issues, only to be remembered in the end of the movie when, in fact, I even hoped the two will not separate. I will not explain the entire movie, but the decisions Nader will make along the way from Simin wanting to get a divorce but being denied to Simin being granted the divorce will show that he, Nader, while not having the power to let go, will, inevitably let go.

Loser's Club is a totally different ballpark, in fact it's not even the same sport, here we have the story of two typical rock n' roll free spirits discussing things, with no form of censorship on their nighttime radio show. Both of them have their own businesses, Kaan has an unsuccessful publishing company while Mete runs a pub and ultimately a shop. The two will go through a series of very interesting events and the overall comical nature of the movie will surely give you something to smile at while not neglecting the pop-philosophy foundation. I admire Tolga Ornek for this masterpiece of Turkish cinema.




Song title: Yalnizlik Omur Boyu, form the soundtrack of Losers' Club.

Where to get your news from

We live in dangerous times my friends, across the world people are faced with artificial threats, are given misleading information and believe they are free while in fact they are the slaves of ignorance. Here is a list of trusted news sites. As you will see, I tried to limit myself only to the most professional and objective sources.

Press TV - Iranian English news station, strongly recommended and to be trusted. It features shows done by Max Kaiser (On the Edge with Max), George Galloway (The Real Deal), Russell Michaels (Cinepolitics), but also a series of documentaries dealing with hot topics around the world, culture and arts. Of great interest are also the two programs dedicated to Iranian culture and life (Iran and Iran Today).

RT TV - Russian news station broadcasting in English. From my observations it tends to be the first to show breaking news. It's commentators will always give you that fresh perspective you have been searching for in terms of geopolitics. Some of the shows are: Kaiser Report (with Max Kaiser, who also does a show on Press TV), CrossTalk (with Peter Lavelle), Interview with Sophie Shevardnadze and Technology Update. The site is one of the best news sites I have ever seen, I definitely like the Russian encyclopedia, the "Learn Russian" section with the famous "Hot for words" and a series of on-line exclusives.

CCTV English - Chinese news station that also has an informative website. I especially like their documentaries and their "learn Chinese" section. Some of their programs are: Asia Today, China 24, Journeys in Time, China Insight and World Insight. A lovely source for information and education.

Xinhua - It's important to keep an eye on the country that seems to be destined to take the role of superpower in decades to come, the Xinhua News Agency is a great place to start.

IRNA - The Islamic Republic's News Agency offers a more detailed point of view coming from this great culture, from here most of the official photos come from (military drills, diplomatic meetings, and so on)

RIA Novosti - Another excellent Russian news site, great articles. One of my favorite columnists is Marc Bennetts who writes "Deeper than Oil", I still remember his thoughts about his trip to North Korea in 2011, an impressive insight into the secretive country. The multimedia section is a must see, the "INFOgraphics" are very well made.

SANA - Syrian Arab News Agency, that's right, the best source of info from that country (at least the best source I found). The website isn't exceptional but you should visit it from time to time.

AVN (Venezuela) - The English version of Venezuela's news agency, offers a limited selection of articles, will search for more sources from Venezuela.

Tehran Times - This is an Iranian English language daily newspaper, I already started to make my digital collection and I try to read it every day although most often I'll just read the titles. The cultural page interests me the most, but also the politics section. The website has been redesigned recently and it look much much better.

This is all for now, I will do updates with other news sources in future posts (hopefully something from Europe and the US also). Don't forget, in addition to being well informed, try to digest the news on your own and don't rely only on what others comment about events, also, read, read books about history, philosophy, these will greatly help you in your every day lives and this is not a joke.

Take care, all the best to you all.

SKOJ / Filler Thoughts.

A real superpower saying to a brutal dictator: "If you continue with that shit, threatening us and our allies, we will have no choice but to come in and built you some schools and hospitals and some fucking industry (not actually that kind of industry)." The reason for this being that, in my humble opinion, a truly great nation promotes development not destruction, doing so it offers no (and I repeat, NO) reason for even the craziest of crazies to attack or even think to attack the particular superpower. I mean, if a long bearded turban wearing tribal leader would say, "we must kill America" you could respond, "shut the fuck up, they helped us get out of the stone age" instead of "yes, their soldier killed my brother, my children died in a drone attack, etc". I would also like to redefine the concept of "superpower", it doesn't matter how many guns you have, what matters is how good your population lives (health, education, happiness, general well being).  So... in conclusion, to all superpowers tuned in into this post, start working for your population, give an example to the rest of the world that, it can be done, people can live in a good world.

SKOJ = Some Kind Of Journal, won't say this twice :)

Not an interesting day (Journal)

Today it was a cold and rather foggy autumn day in Bucharest. Didn't do much except reading, learning Persian and cooking some potatoes and rice. Wanted to go to the movies with Alexandra but nothing worth the price of the tickets was on. I'm reading an interesting book about the Ch'in and Han dynasties and when finished I'll sorely do a review here and present it to you all. Being at the Warring States period I remembered watching a Chinese movie with the same name some time ago, it was amazing, I recommend it.